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How did your first ever scale model turn out?


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Hello, I have never built a model before and I am currently working on my first one. I know that it will take time to perfect the techniques required to make a model look realistic. I am, however, curious to hear from the more experienced model makers on how your very first model turned out? Was it good? Did you learn any lessons worth sharing? 

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1 hour ago, Alex Diaz said:

Hello, I have never built a model before and I am currently working on my first one. I know that it will take time to perfect the techniques required to make a model look realistic. I am, however, curious to hear from the more experienced model makers on how your very first model turned out? Was it good? Did you learn any lessons worth sharing? 

 

 My main lesson was to accept shortcomings in your early models, and not try to build a perfect model the first time. On my first 'serious' model the decals sucked, but I accepted it. But the weathering turned out nice, and I still liked the result. The next one I improved the decaling a lot. You will learn lessons with every new model. You can read more here: Rob de Bie's scale models

 

Rob

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Mine was a Revell Saab Draken I built in the '60s. I was about 5. I used Testors tube glue and figured if a little worked well, a lot should work great. I filled the radome with glue, and over the next few hours, it shriveled up and melted! I still have it in my attic.

 

The main thing with your first model is to have fun with it and use it to learn the process of how they go together. Follow the instructions, for now. Most of us use the instructions as suggestions, sometimes with sadly predictable results. :doh:  Know that some kits/manufacturers are better than others. Some kits will go together relatively easily and others will fight you every step of the way. Do you have a specific area of interest, or are you planning to try various genres? If you have a particular subject you're interested in, you can ask here, and someone will be able to steer you to a good beginner-level kit. 

 

This forum is an excellent resource, if you have questions. Other good forums include Hyperscale, Modeling Madness, FineScale Modeler, and Britmodeler. FineScale Modeler usually has some good beginner-level articles in their print magazine.

 

Welcome to the hobby!

 

Ben

 

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More important than how your first model turns out - is how your second model turns out. 

 

Every build is a lesson learned, to be applied forward to your next build. Mistakes are to be expected. They say experience is not making the same mistake twice. 

Edited by habu2
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It was about 1981, I was 10, and it was the little kit of the USS Arizona (little did I know that one day I would be officially involved with her crew). 

 

It was HORRIBLE!!!! First problem was that on that ship, the inexperienced eye can easily confuse the bow with the stern...which I did. Only went downhill from there. Absolute, total embarrassment.

 

I improved greatly with time and practice, winning my first contest at the age of 16.

 

So relax. Despite the fantastic builds you see in here, you cannot possibly do any worse than how we did for our first builds. :cheers: 

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It was a sloppy affair with Duco cement oozing out everywhere.  Unpainted too but for some reason building then was more fun because I didn't care and got a lot more models completed : )   It's more stressful now, it seems -- have to make sure this and that is perfect -- and I'm not able to finish anything but I still love the hobby.   Like the others have suggested, build your first model without stressing out so much -- making your first builds just enjoyable is key.

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Well, my first model (Spitfire, 1:72?, Airfix?) had little of my effort in it. I became ill that day just after starting it. My father asked if I would like him to finish it or wait until I felt better. I reluctantly asked him to finish it. No paint and not even sure he decaled it. I liked the finished result but was quite disappointed I didn't build it. That why it's stuck in my mind all these years. This was 1965 or 1966.  The following models tended to be glue bombs but they "flew" well.

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Do a Google Images search of "Calvin & Hobbes Stupid Model" and you'll get the idea, only mine was a Spitfire built in 1970 after seeing Battle of Britain in the movie theater with my dad.

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My first model when I returned to model building as an adult was OK. It has seams that I wouldn't have today. It has alignment issues. It has a color scheme suited to rattle cans and brush. BUT, it's still in the display case; well, maybe it is above eye level...

 

The early goal is to learn as much as you can. A most important lesson, which was hard for me, was the old saw, "Perfect in the enemy of good."  Also keep in mind that you know every error you made. You may also be blissfully unaware of flaws that subject matter experts would see.

 

I have a great time with this hobby as it combines many enjoyable activities and results in something sitting in my display case.

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Not sure which was the first, I am thinking maybe the old Aurora Mummy kit

from 1963. I was acceptable to me for a 10 year old. I just kept plugging at

it to try and achieve "box top" looks. 53 years later and I know know enough

to wash the kit, use side cutters to remove parts, sand and putty seams, and

most of all NOT to use Testors cement in the orange tube as a gap filler! I

believe it or not still get glue finger marks on fuselages! But I did learn how to

polish out a clear canopy with sanding sheets from 220 to 12000 grit. Every

model gets better. As an adult getting back into this in the early 80s I did the

old Monogram 1/48 F-100D Super  Sabre. It wasn't too awful bad, brush painted the SEA cammo.

Today I get much better results, I mask with Tamiya tape and use spray cans, Tamiya

lacquer, haven't mastered the air brush yet.---John

Edited by john53
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Oh, some other random thoughts here: keep in mind that it may take a while to develop your own voice, style; your own personal and unique blend of what works for you. This is a craft, an art, where feel is as important as skill. One critical non-artistic feel to develop is the feel for "now is a good time to stop for the day". In real-world aviation there is a thing known as "get-there-itis" which often leads to trouble if not outright disaster - there is a model making corollary.

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My first kit was a Monogram Snap-Tite P-40. My dad took me fishing on the boat and had an inkling I wouldn't last long, so he picked it up at the store on the way to the marina. He was right. Since I didn't have to glue, it turned out okay. I was five, and 43 years later I'm still at it. habu 2 has some wise words. I'd add enjoy your first build and don't worry about if it compares to others that you see. Most of us have decades of a head start on you. 

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I built my first model kit when I was about 7 years old, it was a 1/72 F-100, don't remember the manufacturer, all I remember was when it was done it looked like a pig wearing lipstick!

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I "think" it was an Airfix 1/72 Spitfire built around 1974. Looked good to me at the time. Long since destroyed.

 

But I do still have my daughters first models from 15 years ago. Snap kit Tomcat for the oldest and Hornet for the youngest. No paint. Just stickers.

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Well, it was a P-51 and it had a pretty illustrious war career. I think it took out about 20 or so mud huts, a few dozen brick piles and at least 50 ant hills; and only lost its propeller and canopy a few times. If I recall there were a few hard landings that took out the landing gear but nothing that a full tube of cement couldn't fix. Sadly eventually it ended up in the bottom of a local river with a few expertly placed BB holes in it's fuselage. It lies in a watery grave right next to PT-109, a Revell 1/32 scale P-40 and I think the AMT UFO glow in the dark model from Star Trek. 

 

Bill

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On 1/3/2018 at 2:30 AM, Alex Diaz said:

Hello, I have never built a model before and I am currently working on my first one. I know that it will take time to perfect the techniques required to make a model look realistic. I am, however, curious to hear from the more experienced model makers on how your very first model turned out? Was it good? Did you learn any lessons worth sharing? 

 

Hi Alex!  My very first model kit was the Revell Snap-Tite F-15 way back in 1977 or possibly '78.  How did it turn out?  Pretty darned good considering all I had to do was snap it together.  I played with that sucker for YEARS and loved every single moment of it.  I did most of the assembly but I knew the stickers (yep, stickers...not waterslide decals) were going to give me problems.  The plane had red and white stripes on the wings and nose which meant they were definitely "handed" due to the wing angles and nose contours.  I asked my dad to put on most of the stickers but leave a couple of the wing stripes for me to do.  He did a great job applying the stickers but, when he handed the model to me to finish up, I screwed up the wing stickers!  I put them on backwards.  I had ONE THING to do!  ONE THING!  And I screwed it up.  LOL!

 

So what good lesson did I learn from my first model kit?  The answer to this very important question rings true no matter if you're 7 or 70.  When you're building a kit and you get to a difficult part, have your dad do it for you.   :rolleyes:

 

Eric

 

PS.  I'd like to add a serious note here.  What everyone else is saying is true.  This is a wonderful hobby that is personal in nature.  What I mean by that is the models you build only have to make YOU happy.  Build it for yourself.  Build them to relax.  Build them to challenge youself, to push yourself, to be better.  I'm 47 now and have been building for 40 years and I'm STILL learning new things.  "Perfection" is an impossible goal but, by pursuing it, you can achieve excellence.  You will make mistakes.  With each mistake you make, however, you'll be gaining a lifetime of knowledge.  Above all else, enjoy!!!

Edited by echolmberg
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It might have been an Aurora P-26 circa 1955.  My memory is not good enough to remember how it looked.  As several others said, enjoy the experience and keep on plugging away.  Sidebar: I just introduced our seven year old grandson to model building.  We were sitting at the table last Sunday building away and his grandmother asked him if building models with grandpa was more fun that video games.  His rather serious answer was "Of course it is."  Might be hope for his generation.

 

Cheers, Dave, who realizing somewhere along the old age caught up.

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Like many responses here my first model was most likely built in the early 1960s and most likely an early Revell kit.  I probably built it in a single afternoon and it was probably destroyed within a week. But I persisted and by the time I graduated from high school in 1967 I was a fairly accomplished modeler and hooked for life.

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